Odoo Implementation Methodology - Full Overview

Key Concepts of Odoo Implementation

Before proceeding with implementation, it is important to define and adopt key concepts and principles that will underpin the implementation approach.

Responsibilities

• The project manager's first priority is to ensure that the project is on time and on budget.
• The customer defines the needs of their business (why and what they need) and the way they are met is defined by the product through us (how they need it).

Simplification

• Fewer meetings, less paperwork, faster decision making.
• Limit the number of stakeholders to speed up the decision cycle.
• Limit custom development to the bare minimum.
• Working on site is inefficient for getting things done, but effective for change management and training. Travel to site only when necessary.

People

• Project Leaders should be problem solvers as well as product and business experts.
• Intermediaries who are not decision makers should be avoided.
• Key users should be trained early in the project. They must have confidence in the product and be committed to the project.

Project Managers

• The key to the success of any implementation is the Project Manager (also known as the Project Leaderat Odoo).
• Hire and train the best people. Keep only the best.
• Even the best project managers miss important details. To limit risk, Odoo experts should review their work at key stages of the project.
• But it's important never to forget: Common sense should always prevail over rules!

What Is a Successful Odoo Implementation Project?

The main priority for a successful project is to get users on board with Odoo, on time and on budget. When a project fails, it's always because it took too long or cost too much.

Time and budget are the key elements to structure your methodology. The rest is secondary:

• Custom development is not a priority. Custom development always adds cost and delays the implementation project, sometimes to the point of jeopardising the project. In addition, custom development creates a technical debt that the customer will have to pay in the form of additional maintenance and upgrade costs for years to come. Therefore, developing custom functionality for specific customer needs does not make a project successful, even though it is sometimes necessary to support the customer's core business.

• Customer satisfaction is not a priority during implementation because it is constantly changing at different stages of the project. In addition, each person working for the client may have different expectations, e.g. a key user may want additional features, while the CEO wants the project to be delivered on time and on budget. We would much rather a client be temporarily unhappy (due to a tough discussion about a difficult decision) than miss an implementation deadline. Dissatisfaction in the implementation process is inherent in any project.

• Early sales of post go-live services are not important. Large service companies want to charge the customer as much as possible. We believe that selling more services should never be the first goal. The growth of our business should be the result of quality services or happy customers (ideally both). In fact, we believe it is better to implement clients in fewer working days. This not only reduces the risk of project failure, but also makes us more competitive in the market

Roles In the Project

Odoo as a product is much easier to use than traditional ERP systems. This allows one person to know both the business and the product - something competitors cannot do.

Odoo: Project Leader

Project Leader are the primary decision makers in a project. However, project managers also play the role of project manager, business analyst and product expert. An Odoo Project Leader should be seen as a key contact for the customer during the project.

Odoo: Project Director

For large projects or in cases of high political complexity, a project director is appointed in addition to the project manager. While the Project Manager focuses on implementation, the Project Director helps to present the project and manage management expectations by providing a higher level view of the project. Their role is to keep decision makers informed and committed to the project.

Odoo: App Expert

For key applications (Finance, Inventory Management, Marketing, Production, Website), the most knowledgeable person in the application plays the role of Odoo App Expert. App Experts provide expert review by working on all of the company's projects. In addition to supporting business analysts with complex issues, their goal is to reduce the amount of custom development in projects. To do this, they review ROI analyses, suggesting sensible standard solutions, questioning ‘Must Have/Nice to Have’, and ensuring that we don't develop something that isn't really necessary.

Odoo: Developer

Not all projects require developers. Most small businesses (<50 users) use Odoo out of the box and don't need custom development. They will be involved when and only when the business needs development.

Client: Single Point of Contact (SPoC)

To make the implementation as fast, easy and affordable as possible, it is also necessary to have a strong ally on the customer side. The relevant contact person on the other side is the SPoC as the ‘super key user’ of the project, the SPoC works closely with the Odoo Project Manager and shares responsibility for the success of the project with the Project Manager, the SPoC is involved in every phase of the project.

Client: Additional Roles

In larger projects, additional roles may be defined:

• Steering committee, which consists of decision-makers from the customer and makes decisions on project priorities, methodology, and monitors project success.
• Key-users, who are experts in their specific field and help the SPoC define requirements.
• Sponsors: usually the CEO or CFO who pays for the project and sets the top-level goals.

Odoo Implementation

Stages of Project Implementation and Their Relative Duration:

ROI Analysis

For large projects, an ROI analysis is carried out before the client commits to the entire project and budget. Depending on the size of the project, this can take between 3 and 50 days. For smaller projects (<4 months), the ROI analysis is not a separate step, but is performed during the kick-off phase.

ROI analysis enables clients to

• Get an accurate plan and budget
• Estimate the Return on Investment (ROI): the return on investment
• Reconsider their needs in terms of software specifications
• Remove their doubts about the feasibility of the project and the team

Based on the results of the ROI analysis, the Project Leader provides

• Analysis of savings and benefits for the client (Returns)
• Budget and implementation plan (investment)
• Comparison of business requirements and product functionality
• Proof of Concept (POC): Demonstration of key business processes
• Change Management Strategy

Great stories have a personality. Consider telling a great story that provides personality. Writing a story with personality for potential clients will assist with making a relationship connection. This shows up in small quirks like word choices or phrases. Write from your point of view, not from someone else's experience.

Great stories are for everyone even when only written for just one person. If you try to write with a wide, general audience in mind, your story will sound fake and lack emotion. No one will be interested. Write for one person. If it’s genuine for the one, it’s genuine for the rest.

Kick-Off  

We need to engage people in the project, gain support from our client's company, manage expectations, propose the best approach, and develop a solid plan!

The success of the whole project depends on how you complete this step. That's why the cost of this stage is at least 10% of the project.

The goals of this initial phase are to

• Introduce the methodology to the SPoC and agree on a vision
• Perform a quick ROI analysis to confirm the feasibility of the project (if not already done)
• Finalise the project plan
• Involve the SPoC in the project and make sure they spend time learning Odoo
• Introduce the change strategy to the client's project team

Implementation

Regardless of the level of complexity, a project must keep moving forward. Maintaining a steady pace is key to success. The best way to maintain a high level of engagement is to involve the SPoC in everything.

Within each phase, the project team works in short cycles to deliver functionality on a weekly basis. The solution is gradually shaped throughout the phase and approved by the Project Manager and SPoC. Configuration, data import, and specific development is performed in parallel by the Project Leader and the Developer, if necessary.

Configuration

At this stage, the Project Leader configures the software independently, including customisation using the Studio app, but does not engage in custom development. Once the applications are configured, the Project Manager engages the SPoC and key users in a series of training sessions to verify that the settings are correct.

Importing Data

Depending on the volume and complexity of the data to be imported, either the Project Leader or the Developer will perform this task. Following the project manager's instructions, the SPoC and key users collect the data and prepare the file for import. Migrating data from your current software to Odoo can cause delays and requires good decision making:

• A production launch should not be delayed because of data quality: Importing the cleanest data possible is optimal, but not at the cost of delaying the project. So if the client has not cleaned the data in time and has already used their data in this state, do not delay the production launch to clean it. Some cleaning can be done directly in Odoo during the post-production phase.
• Import the basic data, but avoid the full history (if possible): it takes a lot of time and money for a very low ROI in the long run.

Specific Development

The Project Leader is responsible for the success of the project. Therefore, he or she is responsible for deciding whether or not custom development (which can delay the project) is worthwhile. It's never too late to question whether you really need custom development. Remember, the less development the better.

At this stage, the project manager approves what needs to be developed; it's usually something that's essential to the business, not something that's just 'nice to have' (you can do business without it, although it's not ideal).

The project manager writes the terms of reference, including the scenarios to be tested, and the SPoC certifies that the business requirements are met. The developer then takes over and completes the task. They are also responsible for automated testing.

The Project Leader tests new features and ensures that they integrate with other features or applications. Once the development is approved, he trains the SPoC and key users.

The SPoC is also responsible for testing and validating the development. If problems are found, they inform the Project Leader, who works through the feedback with the developer to correct bugs and make the appropriate changes.

Validation and Training of End Users

Once all the requirements of the stage are met, the SPoC is responsible for all final tests and gives the green light for launch.

As internal Odoo experts, the SPoC and/or key users organise and train all end users.

Likewise, writing the user manual is the responsibility of the customer, as good documentation should be consistent with the customer's internal processes and terminology. In addition, involving the customer in writing the user manual is a good way to ensure that they have fully tested the software in ‘standard practice’ before going live.

Go-Live

When the time comes to switch on the circuit breaker, you may encounter unexpected problems. This is usually due to one or both of the following reasons:

• The database is not fully tested: do your best to have key users fully test all business processes.
• The users are not well trained: if the training was completed several months ago, they may have forgotten. If they did not practice during the training, they may have missed critical steps.

Tips for Go-Live

• Encourage SPoCs to have key users perform the process themselves under their supervision.
• Key users are not professional testers. Good testing is difficult, so they are likely to miss problems. Test the risky parts with them.
• Maximise user acceptance by introducing something they expect and even want to experiment with
• React quickly. Problems are normal as long as you solve them quickly.
• Don't postpone the Go-Live date. Although it may seem like the best choice at the time, a lot can change in 2 months: people may lose motivation, new change requests may appear, data may need to be re-imported, etc. Postponing deadlines exposes the project to additional risks and costs. It's usually better to launch a project quickly, even if it's not perfect.
• Stay on site during the first days of deployment if users are resistant to change. You will be coaching them.

Second Deployment

A month after the first deployment, the project manager reviews the list of remaining developments that were not launched during Phase 1 (i.e. developments planned for the next phase: you can do business without them, but it's not ideal).

After receiving feedback from users, the priority of specific developments usually changes (we usually notice that 50% of the developments were not necessary and a new development was requested).

Progress Report

The Progress Report is designed to be presented to senior management and is used to plan a meeting with top management to discuss the future of the relationship and present the opportunities available.

The Digital Opportunities Matrix helps you identify the best digital opportunities to offer your customers.

By assessing the potential impact and ease of transformation, digital opportunities are classified into four main categories. They are generally categorised as follows:

• Those that should be avoided - with low potential impact and difficult to implement. There is no real benefit.
• Fine-tuning - low potential impact but easy to implement. These initiatives are not a priority, but may be considered at some point.
• Game-changing initiatives - high potential impact but difficult to implement. These initiatives can transform a company for the better.
• Quick wins - These opportunities are the number 1 priority because they lead to rapid and significant improvement.

Usually, they start with the implementation of quick wins. From there, it depends on the company's strategy: some prefer fine-tuning (low risk, lower impact), while others prefer game-changing changes (high impact, higher risk).